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Thursday, March 29, 2018

Promises to Keep by Claire Yezbak Fadden Blitz

Promises
To Keep

By
Claire Yezbak Fadden

Genre:
Women's Fiction, Mystery,Thriller

About the
Book

Love,
Secrets, and Lies…

Kate Jameson married the man of her dreams. Her real-life
hero. A man who wouldn’t abandon her the way her father had—or so she thought. Weeks after their son’s birth, her
husband is suddenly pulled away for a business trip that takes him out of the
country. But something isn’t right. His truths aren’t adding up. Kate digs into
his past, determined to learn what he’s hiding. But unraveling this endless
mystery draws her into a maze of lies, family secrets and deadly consequences.

For twenty years, undercover CIA agent Eric
Wiley lived for one reason—to avenge his parents’ brutal deaths. Until he
marries Kate. Eric promises her a life of love and commitment, but competing
promises constantly collide, offering him little chance of keeping either. When
an informant lures him to Mexico, Eric thinks his goal of apprehending an
elusive killer will be realized. Leaving his family for a few short days, weeks
at the most, would be worth the prize.

Can this final mission bring closure and allow
Eric to be the husband Kate deserves and the father he yearns to be? Or will
their destiny remain mired in the secrets of his past, leaving them powerless
to embrace their present?

EXCERPTS

ERIC

He walked to where she stood and kissed her cheek before embracing his wife and son in a group hug. “I feel damn lucky this emergency didn’t come up sooner.”

He brushed her arm, noting the goosebumps prickling against his palm.

“If that call had come before Benjamin’s birth, would you have left and missed seeing your son be born?” she asked.

How could he answer without adding more lies to the growing mountain of falsehoods he’d already fabricated? As far as she knew, he was committed to his profession as an importer for his parents’ chain of discount stores. The success of his mission—and possibly his safety—depended on her believing that version.

“Of course not.” Eric told her what she wanted to hear.

KATE

Kate smiled at the way Eric’s eyebrows arched in his hopeless attempts to get Benjamin’s attention. For the past twenty minutes, she held their son in an awkward posture in front of her desktop computer camera, coaxing a somewhat sleeping baby to greet his father. Up until a few seconds ago, their son displayed little interest. She knew the squirming had more to do with hunger than his eagerness to interact with his dad.

Kate had waited all day for Eric to call. She needed to see his face, stubbled with a five-o’clock shadow, even if it was through her computer screen. She shifted Benjamin to her other arm. This must be how military families with one parent deployed feel.

This wasn’t the marriage she signed up for. Twenty minutes over a video call couldn’t substitute for his presence. It could be exhaustion or not getting regular sleep, but she wondered if the man she married was more like her father in ways she hadn’t anticipated. Eric wasn’t an alcoholic, a wifebeater or a deadbeat. But neither was Monica’s husband, Brad. Kate had witnessed how her brother-in-law’s sins nearly ripped the soul of their family apart.

There were all sorts of ways to abandon your wife and desert your family. Just because she was most familiar with the ones her father implemented, didn’t mean that she and her sisters wouldn’t suffer from other approaches. Separated by hundreds of miles without knowing when he would return qualified as desertion of a type. At least in Kate’s mind.

There's a special
spot in Claire's heart for carousel horses – quite possibly the result of
watching “Mary Poppins” 13 times as a young girl. She loves butterflies,
ladybugs and confetti! Just ask anyone who's received a birthday card from her.

The mother of three
lives in Orange County, California with her husband, Nick and three spoiled
dogs.

Claire’s work as an
award-winning journalist, humor columnist and editor has appeared in more than
100 publications across the United States, Canada and Australia. Promises To Keep is the second novel in
her Begin Again series.